Jesse looked at Bill, and straightened his collar, just a little. “You wait out here.”

“No, I think I should –“

She silenced him with a finger across his lips. “I need to do this. Need to talk to Daddy by myself.”

“You think he’s gonna be pleased?” Ethan asked, lounging against the wall of the airlock. “He is so going to kill you.” He grinned, taking the two year age gap – in his favour – very seriously.

“No, he won’t. I've always been able to get him to see reason.” She pushed her long brown hair back behind her ears.

“You think?” Ethan laughed. “Can I have your capture when you’re dead?”

“Momma won’t let him kill me.” She stuck out her chin. “She’d have to clear up the mess.”

“Oh, Jesse.” Ethan couldn’t stop the chortles bubbling up from his throat. “This I can’t wait to see.”

“Where is he?” She ignored his comments, just walking up the ramp and elbowing him in the stomach on the way.

He rubbed his belly. “They’re resting .” His face took on a slightly revolted look.

“They’re in love,” Jesse responded, having slightly more sympathy for the way her parents couldn’t keep their hands off each other, even now.

“But they’re old .”

“Ethan, you’ll be lucky to keep a girl interested in you long enough to say hello, let alone stay together as long as they have.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Jess, honey, I really think you ought to let me come and see your dad first,” Bill said, still standing outside in the sunshine.

She turned, her face softer, so like her mother’s. “No, really. He doesn’t even know about you yet. I don’t think you asking him for his daughter’s hand is going to go down that well.”

“It isn’t your hand he wants,” Ethan said, still smarting from the insult, and the blow to his stomach.

“He’s already had the rest,” Jesse said airily, smiling sweetly at him, as Bill flushed furiously.

“Oh, God, I didn’t need to know that!”

“Know what?” Jayne asked, ambling up behind them.

“Uncle Jayne!” Jesse said